We arrived at Don Khong a day earlier than our volunteering gig began so we could spend a day exploring around the local islands. The island we would be staying on is part of the 4000 Island area in Laos.…

After a quick stop in Hanoi, Vietnam to catch a flight, we found ourselves in Thailand again. Our path never made much sense, but we didn't care, since we were able to meet Ms. Jessica Lee and Kanami Otani in…

Grant and I had kicked around the idea of doing a 10-day meditation retreat while on our travels. We went back and forth about it in the beginning, but after meeting some folks who had completed and benefited greatly from…

To cross the border and go to Laos, we elected to take the slow boat. The other options included the fast boat, which was apperently dangerous and loud beyond reason, and the bus, which was bumpy, slow, and vomit-inducing. The…

The ride from Phonsavan to Paske was insanely long. Estimated to be 15 hours, it ended up taking 19 hours to get there. The ride was less exhausting than we imagined, however. We had a good number of stops for…

Phonsavan is a dusty town in east-central Laos. It is the center of the aftermath of the American-Vietnam War in Laos. It is also home to an ancient treasure called The Field of Jars. The Field of Jars in now…

Vang Vieng is know for drunken tubing down the river that runs along town. A couple of years back, the city shut down the majority of the bars that lined the river previously. Apparently, tourists were getting hurt and a…

We arrived in Nong Khiaw and found it to be a beautiful mountain town along the Ou river. We found a great hostel called Delilah with our new friend, Sean. We met another new friend, Tock, in the common area…

Chiang Rai at first greated us with harsh sun and dusty streets. It sort of reminded us of what we'd expect a harsh, little city in Mexico to look like. As we wandered the streets in search of our hostel,…

Penang is known as the food capital of Malaysia. Grant and I, being food motivated people through and through, were really excited to eat our faces off. Our hostel was located within Little India in the city of Penang. As…

We were very excited to find out that a campground on the beautiful Perhentian Islands had two volunteer vacancies that Grant and I would be filling for a month. It sounded too good to be true: bioluminescent plankton, turtles laying…

We flew from KK to Kota Bharu without a problem. We finally made it to peninsular Malaysia! While trekking around Borneo, we heard that the island culture is different from the mainland, so we were interested to see the differences for…

Semporna, Sipadan, Mabul, and Kapalai. This is the holy grail for scuba divers. Semporna, a kind of sketchy and rag-tag town, is the departure point for about a a dozen islands and nearly a hundred unique dive sites. Mabul is…

Borneo is one of those islands that make you think about dense jungles, diverse wildlife, harsh terrain, and untouched backcountry. It truly is a gorgeous island. Our next stop on the island is a guest house right on the edge…